When most people hear the word opera they think of Viking hats and extremely loud singing. There were no Viking hats at this function, but rather there were beautiful ball gowns and tuxedos in the Murphy Auditorium Sept. 14.

The New Rochelle Opera presented the Operatic Heart-Stoppers performance featuring Kelli Butler, Christina Rohm, Anna Tonna, Blake Friedman and Peter Hakjoon Kim. The show was a tribute to opera legend Licia Albanese who performed a total of 427 shows at the Metropolitan Opera over the span of 26 years.

The first performance by Hakjoon, “Largo al factotum,” left audience members and myself surprised by the sheer volume of the singer.

Freidman continued the production with a rendition of “La Donna e mobile.” It called to mind everything that we associate with traditional Italian opera.

However, the performance that really won the heart of the audience was that of soprano Butler who sang a powerful and enduring rendition of “Sempra libera” from the opera “La traviata.” It was beautifully done.

Credit is also due to Rohm and Tonna. Tonna and Rohm’s duet, also known as a flower duet, from Madam Butterfly introduced a modern tone to the night which resulted in a round of heavy applause from the audience.

While each of the singers’ performances proved to be outstanding, the turnout was low, especially in terms of Iona students. Instead, the audience was primarily comprised of members of the New Rochelle community.

For the few students that did make the effort to attend the performance, they found the opera to be anything but a bore.

“I thought it was great and the performers did very well,” freshman Tori Finnegan said.

Alongside Finnegan was freshman Alex Naughton. This was the first opera that she attended.

“I thought the performers were decent singers and it was actually really good,” Naughton said.

The New Rochelle Opera’s Operatic Heart-Stoppers performance was indeed enjoyable to watch. It may have lacked that extra shock and excitement than most people are used to in modern performances, but the talent among the singers was undeniable.

Be on the lookout for future performances from the New Rochelle Opera on campus.